LIV Tour okays short pants

The ‘LIV Golf Invitational Series’ sponsored by Saudi Arabia has permitted players to wear short pants during tournament through social media posts.

Greg Norman, the chief of the LIV Golf, posted on his social media channels a 12-second video clip after the end of Round 1 at LIV Golf Invitational Boston, which was taking place at The International in Boston, Massachusetts on Saturday. In the video, Norman is initially seen clad in long pants, but says “Players in the LIV Golf can wear short pants from Round 2,” as the video shows his long-pants transforming into shorts. LIV Golf’s official social media channels also announced that short pants have been officially permitted’ while posting the video.

The move is part of LIV’s strategy to differentiate itself from the PGA Tour of the U.S. In the PGA Tour, players are not allowed to wear short pants. Female golfers can wear skirt and short pants in the PGA Tour and caddies were permitted to wear short pants from 1999, but male golfers are still strictly prohibited from wearing short pants.

In the PGA Tour, there were discussions about wearing of short pants many times, but short pants are only permitted during training rounds and remains prohibited during official tournament. The reason cited behind this is wearing short pants would lower the value of golf and thus could mess up traditional dress code of golf sport. Watchers say by permitting pants, LIV is attempting to instill players and the golf community with the impression that LIV is different from the PGA Tour.


hun@donga.com